EU President

dresden8

Breaking news on sky.

Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy (spelling?) chosen as first EU president, or whatever the correct title is.

Can't wait to see the mail, they'll be apoplectic a Johnny foreigner got the job.

Scofflaw

dresden8 wrote: »

Breaking news on sky.

Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy (spelling?) chosen as first EU president, or whatever the correct title is.

President of the European Council...

cordially,
Scofflaw

Aidric

I don't usually post this on here but Who? I'm referring specifically to the Foreign Affairs position, a complete unknown.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8367589.stm

sceptre

... as predicted last week (via MEP David Martin) on boards.ie.

Aidric wrote: »

I don't usually post this on here but Who? I'm referring specifically to the Foreign Affairs position, a complete unknown.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8367589.stm

That's a pretty darned odd appointment. She's been commissioner for trade and has zero foreign affairs experience. My instincts scream "valued mouthpiece".

Mr.Micro

That's great, at least that the war monger Blair did not get even a sniff at it and the likes of the has been Brown insisting that he be given the presidency (as if the EU or the world can or could afford any more from him), only backing down at the last minute. Poor conceited Blair nobody loves him, he will have plenty of time now to reflect on his past deeds.

mike65

and still people will be able to play the "name the famous Belgian politician" game.

dresden8

Mr.Micro wrote: »

That's great, at least that the war monger Blair did not get even a sniff at it and the likes of the has been Brown insisting that he be given the presidency (as if the EU or the world can or could afford any more from him), only backing down at the last minute. Poor conceited Blair nobody loves him, he will have plenty of time now to reflect on his past deeds.

Is he not still our honest broker in the middle east?

Aard

Public service announcement: it's pronounced as a cross between "van ROM-pay" and "van ROM-poy".

Not "van ROM-poo-ee".

Scofflaw

Aard wrote: »

Public service announcement: it's pronounced as a cross between "van ROM-pay" and "van ROM-poy".

Not "van ROM-poo-ee".

So...we can't call him "Van Rumpy" then?

apologies,
Scofflaw

starbelgrade

Aard wrote: »

Public service announcement: it's pronounced as a cross between "van ROM-pay" and "van ROM-poy".

Not "van ROM-poo-ee".

This is as bad as soccer pundits calling Arsenal's Arshavin, "Arshaavin", when we all know it's pronounced as "Arse shaving" / "Arse Haven".

Either way, thank God that Blair never made the running, despite being the bookie's 2nd favourite up until yesterday.

ednwireland

this quote from brian cowan made me laugh (on the foreign affairs appointment

Mr Cowen described Ms Ashton as an effective trade commissioner. “I know the Tánaiste thinks highly of her. She has worked well especially on bilateral trade issues.”
ROFL

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/1120/1224259179665.html

bet she doesnt realise what we think of that as a recommendation over here

mike65

Whatever about Blairs legacy at least if he was on the line Moscow, Bejing and Washington DC would know who the hell they were talking to!

PaulieD

Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy believes separate national emblems should be scrapped in a drive to create a new Euro identity.
He also supports a huge extension of EU influence over town halls, schools and sports, and he wants “green taxes” to be imposed across all 27 member

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/140803/EU-threat-to-the-Union-Jack-and-national-anthem

He can get the boat.:mad:

Robbo

PaulieD wrote: »

Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy believes separate national emblems should be scrapped in a drive to create a new Euro identity.
He also supports a huge extension of EU influence over town halls, schools and sports, and he wants “green taxes” to be imposed across all 27 member

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/140803/EU-threat-to-the-Union-Jack-and-national-anthem

He can get the boat.:mad:

I'll take that well considered article and raise it a misquote.

"He isn’t going to step on anyone’s toes or try to dominate the world like Tony Blair or President Sarkozy might have."

-- Pieter Van Cleppe; of beloved (and rational) thinktank Open Europe

ei.sdraob

So no Blair eh

makes me feel warm and fuzzy when British tabloid trash and their equally trashy followers get proven wrong again

meditraitor

Turkey are going to find it a tad more difficult to get in the EU.

PaulieD

meditraitor wrote: »

Turkey are going to find it a tad more difficult to get in the EU.

Be thankful for small mercies.

meditraitor

Who is this ashton woman, never been elected for anything?

ro09

dresden8 wrote: »

Breaking news on sky.

Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy (spelling?) chosen as first EU president, or whatever the correct title is.

Can't wait to see the mail, they'll be apoplectic a Johnny foreigner got the job.

Yes The First EU President, what next now for the EU, complete control over member states, filter out democracy. Looking at them all cuddled up yesterday , it looked like some sort of superpower state.

whats more worrying is that nearly all of the Media in this country are Pro everything european.

meditraitor

ro09 wrote: »

Yes The First EU President, what next now for the EU, complete control over member states, filter out democracy. Looking at them all cuddled up yesterday , it looked like some sort of superpower state.

whats more worrying is that nearly all of the Media in this country are Pro everything european.

Thats quite a jump, the EU appoints someone to the Presidency of the Council and all of a sudden we have lost our democracy, maybe you need to sit down and take a few breaths young man.

There are plenty of anti EU media outlets in Ireland, that crazy christian "alive" is as anti as it gets.

Robbo

ei.sdraob wrote: »

So no Blair eh

makes me feel warm and fuzzy when British tabloid trash and their equally trashy followers get proven wrong again

The little Irelanders will still find a way of being terribly offended by it. After all, an "EU President" can't promise to fix the potholes, can they?

PaulieD

Robbo wrote: »

The little Irelanders will still find a way of being terribly offended by it. After all, an "EU President" can't promise to fix the potholes, can they?

Who are the "little Irelanders?"

meditraitor

Robbo wrote: »

After all, an "EU President" can't promise to fix the potholes, can they?

If I was them I would ask what we did with the 3.3 billion they granted the ndp between 2000 and 2007....

mike65

ei.sdraob wrote: »

So no Blair eh

makes me feel warm and fuzzy when British tabloid trash and their equally trashy followers get proven wrong again

Shows what you know eh?

Daily Mail editorial comment

And Again

Daily Express views

The Sun

Just a few examples of UK tabloid thinking

View

PaulieD wrote: »

Who are the "little Irelanders?"

Irish versions of "Little Englanders". Recognisable because they parrot the opinions of the Daily Torygraph, Express, Mail etc. These, they believe, operate entirely with the best interests of Ireland at heart, whereas anyone attempting to view the EU from an Irish perspective who honestly tries to figure out what is in our best interest is derided by them as being a puppet of Brussels for doing so. Politically speaking, they are people who in normal circumstances spend their time outside howling through the keyhole.

meglome

ro09 wrote: »

Yes The First EU President, what next now for the EU, complete control over member states, filter out democracy. Looking at them all cuddled up yesterday , it looked like some sort of superpower state.

whats more worrying is that nearly all of the Media in this country are Pro everything european.

You know it gets tiring pointing out that this is the President of the European Council and it's has no real powers. No more than a chairpersons role which is reflected in the man chosen for the job.

And imagine the EU leaders want to get along and have consensus, the horror of it all.

Aidric

Scofflaw wrote: »

So...we can't call him "Van Rumpy" then?

apologies,
Scofflaw

He prefers Rumpole of the Bailey.

marco_polo

meditraitor wrote: »

Turkey are going to find it a tad more difficult to get in the EU.

Aside from the fact that it is not likely to become a possibility within his term of office, even if he goes on to serves a double 5 year term. Since he has no executive powers or voting rights, he doesn't really get a say in the matter one way or another.

Nigel Farage

The appointment of Ashton has rightly been treated with the disdain it deserves. Further evidence of the moral decline within the halls of the European machine.

BlitzKrieg

Nigel Farage wrote: »

The appointment of Ashton has rightly been treated with the disdain it deserves. Further evidence of the moral decline within the halls of the European machine.

thanks for winning the lisbon referendum for us Nigel.

couldnt have done it without you.

CIE

meglome wrote: »

You know it gets tiring pointing out that this is the President of the European Council and it has no real powers. No more than a chairpersons role which is reflected in the man chosen for the job

Where exactly does it say in the Treaty of Lisbon that the POTEU (as called by the politicians at EU level) has "no real powers"...? There are no limits put on that new position by that treaty; that's why Barroso suddenly got worried, after bleating for a "strong presidency", because he suddenly came to realise what he'd lose.

If anything's "tiresome", it's reading the repeated "pointing out" of a fallacy that lacks proof. (With all due respect, that is.)

And imagine the EU leaders want to get along and have consensus, the horror of it all

You'd better be worried when there's consensus at the top. That bides ill for the people at the bottom, and has indeed led to horrors.

marco_polo wrote: »

Since he has no executive powers or voting rights

With all due respect, where does it say that in the treaty?

The only "shall not" related to the European Council (and presumably its "President") is that "(i)t shall not exercise legislative functions". Nothing about no executive powers. Absence of a mention does not imply a limit.

Scofflaw

CIE wrote: »

Where exactly does it say in the Treaty of Lisbon that the POTEU (as called by the politicians at EU level) has "no real powers"...? There are no limits put on that new position by that treaty; that's why Barroso suddenly got worried, after bleating for a "strong presidency", because he suddenly came to realise what he'd lose.

If anything's "tiresome", it's reading the repeated "pointing out" of a fallacy that lacks proof. (With all due respect, that is.)You'd better be worried when there's consensus at the top. That bides ill for the people at the bottom, and has indeed led to horrors.With all due respect, where does it say that in the treaty?

The only "shall not" related to the European Council (and presumably its "President") is that "(i)t shall not exercise legislative functions". Nothing about no executive powers. Absence of a mention does not imply a limit.

The position is given no real powers - and absence of being granted powers under systems ruled by law does a good deal more than imply a limit - it is a limit.

If the President of the European Council were to turn round and say "right, order out the jackbooted EU stormtroopers - and if there aren't any, conscript some, then order them out", then whoever he gives that order to doesn't go "ZOMG! we totally forgot to include any rules that preclude him doing that! Jawohl, I'll get right on it!".

If the President is not specifically granted the power to order something by the documents outlining his/her role (the EU Treaties), then nobody is obliged to follow an order from the President to do that something, and a court would find that the President had acted outside his/her powers in making such an order.

That is a perfectly normal and sane approach, since otherwise, every conceivable power that you didn't want someone to exercise would need to be written into their job specification - and that would be the case from the President of the European Union to the school janitor ("show me where it says I can't order the students to go on a forced march up the Dublin Mountains!").

I'm not normally quite so blunt - but really, you need to get your brain cells wired together before they each die of loneliness.

very slight regards,
Scofflaw

Flamed Diving

ei.sdraob wrote: »

So no Blair eh

makes me feel warm and fuzzy when British tabloid trash and their equally trashy followers get proven wrong again

And the conspiracy theorists. Where are ye now, eh? Eh?

Nigel Farage

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

thanks for winning the lisbon referendum for us Nigel.

couldnt have done it without you.

I am intrigued as to why you might think this. The real shame is on your government for not accepting the democratic will of the people after the first referendum.

oscarBravo

Nigel Farage wrote: »

I am intrigued as to why you might think this. The real shame is on your government for not accepting the democratic will of the people after the first referendum.

Yes, thank you, we've rehearsed that argument more than once in the build-up to the referendum. I don't think we need to go over it again.

BlitzKrieg

Nigel Farage wrote: »

I am intrigued as to why you might think this. The real shame is on your government for not accepting the democratic will of the people after the first referendum.

tbh

Flamed Diving

Nigel Farage wrote: »

I am intrigued as to why you might think this. The real shame is on your government for not accepting the democratic will of the people after the first referendum.

The bigger shame are people who live without constitutions.

View

Nigel Farage wrote: »

I am intrigued as to why you might think this. The real shame is on your government for not accepting the democratic will of the people after the first referendum.

Our Government is allowed to refer whatever it likes, whenever it likes and as often as it likes to the people in referenda. As our Supreme Court ruled, it cannot be undemocratic to refer an issue to the people since the final decision is always the people's.

The real shame here though is that you don't seem to be able to accept the Constitutional order of the United Kingdom whereby Parliament, being sovereign, has the authority to make decisions on behalf of the British people. Instead you expect us to block a Treaty democratically ratified by your own Parliament.

oscarBravo

Let's not fall into the trap of assuming that this is actually Nigel Farage we're dealing with, shall we?

BlitzKrieg

oscarBravo wrote: »

Let's not fall into the trap of assuming that this is actually Nigel Farage we're dealing with, shall we?

admit it.

its your alter ego!

View

oscarBravo wrote: »

Let's not fall into the trap of assuming that this is actually Nigel Farage we're dealing with, shall we?

I'd assume the poster is probably British since he refers to "your government" (as opposed to "our government"). I'd also asssume that he isn't NF as presumably he should have better things to do with his time than to be posting here.

PS Anyone looking at the UKIP site will be "happy" to notice that they seem to have missed Irish independence as their logo covers the RoI as well as the UK.

Scofflaw

Nigel Farage wrote: »

I am intrigued as to why you might think this. The real shame is on your government for not accepting the democratic will of the people after the first referendum.

Which it turns out would have been entirely the wrong thing to do, given the scale of the change of mind of the electorate. The "democratic will of the people" isn't a once-off thing.

amused,
Scofflaw

Flamed Diving

oscarBravo wrote: »

Let's not fall into the trap of assuming that this is actually Nigel Farage we're dealing with, shall we?

I dont know who that is. He could be Nigel Peabody II for all I know.

P. Breathnach

View wrote: »

...I'd also asssume that he isn't NF as presumably he should have better things to do with his time than to be posting here..

Although I think most participants in this forum have better things to do than post here, I am quite willing to believe that the real Nigel Farage hasn't.

Nigel Farage

tbh

http://thegrandnarrative.files.wordp...dead-horse.gif

The fact that you have constructed a child like retort speaks volumes and in fact is probably fitting, given that your government treated it's electorate like kids first time out.

I'd assume the poster is probably British since he refers to "your government" (as opposed to "our government"). I'd also asssume that he isn't NF as presumably he should have better things to do with his time than to be posting here.

You assume rather a lot, but correctly as it happens. I am not Nigel himself but he is a man of great principles, so great that I have incarnated him in my username.

Which it turns out would have been entirely the wrong thing to do, given the scale of the change of mind of the electorate. The "democratic will of the people" isn't a once-off thing.

The scale of change of mind was precipitated by a vile scare campaign.

Dinner

Nigel Farage wrote: »

The scale of change of mind was precipitated by a vile scare campaign.

And nobody lied and scaremongered more than our friend Nigel. Anytime he opened his mouth a lie fell out. He went on national radio and said that there were no changes at all between the EU constituton and Lisbon. That is a lie. During the Reuters Lisbon debate he said that Lisbon was self amending and would be the last referendum Ireland would ever have. That is a lie.

Nigel Farage deliberately tried to decieve the Irish electorate to make it seem like there was support for his cause. He supported the 'No to Lisbon campaign' not because of any genuine concern for the contents and effects of the Lisbon Treaty, but because a second No vote would be disastrous for the EU, and whats bad for the EU is good for Nig.

Nigel Farage did not have a ****ing clue what he was talking about during the campaign. And I imagine little has changed. How anyone can have any support for this man when his lies are so easily disproved is beyond me.

Nigel Farage

Another victim of the Cowan and Barosso brainwash I see.

Dinner

Nigel Farage wrote: »

Another victim of the Cowan and Barosso brainwash I see.

Afraid not. I do my best to avoid the ramblings of Cowan and don't recall reading or listening to anything said by Barosso in the run up to Lisbon. You'll have to try harder than that.

Although I have my suspicions about whether you are serious or just trolling I'll carry on as if you're real for the moment.

Can you tell me why Nigel Farage told lies about the Lisbon Treaty?


You don't have to address any of my points of course. If you prefer you can just reply with a one liner to try and avoid any awkward questions. I don't mind either way.

Nigel Farage

Dinner wrote: »

Afraid not. I do my best to avoid the ramblings of Cowan and don't recall reading or listening to anything said by Barosso in the run up to Lisbon. You'll have to try harder than that.

Are you honestly trying to tell me that you heard nothing from the President of the European Commission in the run up to Lisbon? Wow. I recall in one instance he was campaigning in a town called Limerick as well as granting interviews.

Dinner

Nigel Farage wrote: »

Are you honestly trying to tell me that you heard nothing from the President of the European Commission in the run up to Lisbon? Wow. I recall in one instance he was campaigning in a town called Limerick as well as granting interviews.

I'm saying that I never read or watched something that he said in the run up to Lisbon 2, or if I have I can't even remember it. I remember hearing that he was in Limerick to announce grants for the former Dell workers but I didn't watch any of his interviews. I didn't listen to what politicians were saying because most of them were insistent on throwing around vague and meaningless 'spin' slogans. I made up my mind without the help of Cowan or Barosso. Despite what you might like to believe, not all yes voters are FF yes men. You'd be hard pushed to find a poster here that supports Cowan.

Now, if you'd mind stopping dodging the question for one moment;

Why did Nigel Farage continuosly tell lies while campaigning against Lisbon?

Nigel Farage

Dinner wrote: »

but I didn't watch any of his interviews.

Maybe you should have before passing authoritative comment.